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If your neck of the wood is in the USA, I did not mean Chinese-Americans but Chinese-Chinese which would include a very tiny minority of Christians.[/b]

Pardon the continuing OT sub-thread.

Benedict, I am not in the Americas or Europe. Ethnic Chinese make up 70% of the population in my country. But you are right about China, though. Freedom of worship is still not officially tolerated, and one cannot enter China solely as a missionary; the only Christian churches are home churches.

Now, back to the topic, I agree with you, Benedict, that Bach's chorales are not as useful as his other keyboard music for sight-reading. Bach is also my favourite composer, and I spend about 30 minutes each day sight-reading his various works for keyboard. I also sight-read a lot of other Baroque music, e.g. Handel and Scarlatti. In such music, both hands usually play equally challenging parts independently.

I also sight-read 20th-century music, which is full of sudden key changes and accidentals, and thus perfect for sight-reading. However, I do not enjoy the music anywhere near as much as I enjoy Bach.

I think playing at church will help a lot. I have been playing the organ at church for 10 years and have played at some pretty high profile services.

The added pressure of having to play the whole thing without stopping, warts and all, afforded by hymn/choral accompaniment brought my sight-reading and general playing on immensely.

I'm not sure I agree that Bach's contrapuntal works are specifically "better" for sight-reading practise. You need a wide range, and chorales will give you experience in harmony and chords that say the 2 part inventions will not. Handel, Scarlatti, Bach (not chorales) each have their own nuances to offer within that general style e.g. hand-crossing in Scarlatti.

As someone also pointed out, modern music or simply any different music will stretch you in a different direction.

At the moment I am blagging my way through the Scriabin Piano Sonatas for sight-reading. Slowly, of course, but the early C20 tonality, thick textures and notes at the extremities are teaching me a lesson or two in sight-reading!Cheers,

I'm glad to see other people love chorales as much as I do. I always feel like such a music nerd when I think about this, but for me, there is nothing like a good chorale. I really admire the style and elegance of a well-written chorale, especially after having struggled through many harmonization excercises in theory class. Bach's chorales are definitely useful for both sightreading and the study of common-pracitce theory.

pianoloverus
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Registered: 05/29/01
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Loc: New York City

I studied with William Beller (around 25 lessons only) at Columbia and Richard Casper(graduate of Julliard) in high school. I don'r know whom they studied with but would be VERY interested in finding out if anyone could help me. I think Casper became the director of the Cape Cod Conservatory of Music (or some school in that area).